BUA Cement’s $1.05bn new Nigeria plants to raise capacity to 20mmt by 2022

By Charles Abuede

• China’s Sinoma CBMI wins deal to build plants in Edo, Sokoto, Adamawa
• New plants to be completed by close of 2022

BUA Cement Plc, a member company of BUA Group founded by billionaire industrialist, Abdul Samad Rabiu, is continuing its expansionist programme to increase its Nigeria and Africa cement production footprint with the signing of an agreement with Sinoma CBMI of China to construct three new plants, each able to produce three million tonnes of cement per annum in Edo, Sokoto and Adamawa states, respectively. The three projects will cost $1.05 billion.

A regulatory disclosure statement signed by Ahmed Aliyu, BUA Cement’s company secretary, to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, puts completion date for the projects at close of 2022, upon which the company’s total capacity will increase to 20 million metric tonnes.

At nine million tonnes combined capacity the deal with Sinoma represents the single largest contract ever awarded in the Nigerian cement industry for the construction of new cement plants at the same time and by a single company, in Nigeria, the company said in a Twitter post.

Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Cement, while speaking at the signing ceremony simultaneously held in Nigeria and China, said the expansion decision was to transform the manufacturing industry and increase Nigeria’s cement production capacity.

“Nigeria and the surrounding region is still home to huge opportunities in construction, housing, infrastructure, and allied industries,” Rabiu began to say in his speech.

“Despite these opportunities, there is no doubt that there is still a huge deficit in supply whilst demand continues to increase in Nigeria. This situation has led to an increase in the retail prices of cement despite ex-factory prices remaining partially unchanged. To abridge this huge deficit gap in Nigeria and in the absence of new major investments in the industry, we have taken this decision to invest and build these new plants at a total project cost of $1.05 billion which will be completed by the end of 2022,” Rabiu concluded.

Also, Tong Laigou, chairman, Sinoma CBMI, in his comments on the new project, praised the long partnership between BUA and CBMI, adding that Sinoma was pleased to partner with BUA on this huge project and help BUA in its aspiration to be the best cement manufacturer in Africa.

He assured that CBMI would bring its expertise and wealth of experience working in this environment to bring the project to completion on schedule.

The three new plants are in addition to BUA Cement’s six million metric tonnes per year plants in Edo State, two million metric tonnes per annum plants in Sokoto State and the new three million metric tonnes per annum plant also located in Sokoto, which is to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2021.